Kukla's Korner Hockey

Keeping everyone happy could get problematic for Holland down the road, but it is a challenge that every GM around the league faces. The primary goal will be to avoid expensive mistakes – the kinds of contracts that can’t be traded, almost the moment the ink dries on the document.

The quality that sets Holland apart from the rank-and-file NHL general manager is that he’s thinking a little faster and a little farther out than others in his peer group. At the moment, you cannot find one contract on his list that looks bad in hindsight – even the deals he awarded to his supplementary players, such as Kris Draper or Kirk Maltby.

“Players only get so many years to make their money,” said Holland. “You want to make sure they feel good about their contracts and they feel good when they walk into the locker room. What we’ve been able to do since I became the general manager in 1997 and started with Steve (Yzerman). There were other people in the league making more than Steve. Steve wanted to take less so he could be surrounded by teammates.